Just keep swimming…er, writing

Menu

A Tale of Three Stories

CBCA measures the truth of a story using 18 criteria, but for writing purposes, not all the criteria are equally useful. For example, #15 is lack of memory. People telling true stories are more likely to admit that they don’t remember everything, that parts of the experience are fuzzy. But that’s only useful in writing if you’re using a first-person narrator, which I never do. Some of the other criteria are specific to law enforcement, so I’m going to focus on the criteria that are most useful to writers.

I’ll start by telling you three stories.

Here’s the first:

I was burglarized once. The thief cleaned us out.

Here’s the second:

I was once living in a house that was burglarized. I was asleep at the time of the robbery. The thief cut a hole in a window, unlocked it, came in through the window, went through the house and took everything portable—cameras, laptop computers, cash, camcorders. Then he left through the front door. He must have had to make two trips, he took so much stuff.

Two stories. One of them, according to Criteria-Based Content Analysis, should sound more believable to you. Obviously, I can’t read your mind. I can’t know what you think. But if you were a police officer listening to my stories using CBCA, you’d conclude that #2 was more likely to be true than #1.

The more details a story has, the more likely it is to be true. Details, as a criteria, measured by quantity, has a 98% success record in the tests of the viability of CBCA as a law enforcement technique. 98%. The more details a witness provides, the more likely it is that their story is true.

But it doesn’t stop there. Time for story number three.

Back when I was living in Oakland, my house was burglarized. I was living with my brother, his wife, her sister, their two dogs, and my five-month old son and in the middle of the night, someone broke in and cleaned us out. The worst part for me was that he or she stole the camcorder that I’d been recording my son with. I’d actually caught his first laugh on tape, and the thief stole it. Other stuff, too, but it’s the laugh that hurts.

Story #2 and Story #3 have roughly the same number of details. If the only thing that mattered was the number of details, they would be equivalently believable. According to CBCA, they’re not.

Story #3 should seem more believable, because not all details are created equal. Factual details matter. The thief came in through the window, etc. But factual details don’t resonate. People don’t respond to them. And they don’t make people feel the truth of your story. So what does?

2 thoughts on “A Tale of Three Stories”

I waver about whether the info is just too obvious–to write better stories, include more details, duh. But especially as I got into the criteria I started to see how it works really well to help you choose which details to include. Harry Potter living in a closet does not equal Harry Potter living in a cupboard under the stairs.

Welcome

The Write Push was created to be a digital "Prod Squad" between a few writer friends. Each of us has our own work-in-progress and a desire to reach our personal writing goals. Writing is a lonely task, but sometimes it takes a team effort to reach the finish line. If you're new to our blog, thanks for stopping by. Enjoy reading about our progressions, comment, or just smile because you know exactly how we feel. You've been there too. And if you have your own goal that you need a little prodding to finish - declare it here (if you dare).